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Creature of Havoc (book)
Creature of Havoc is a single-player role-playing gamebook written by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Alan Langford and originally published in 1986 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 24th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-032040-7) and 4th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-391-0). Creation Tales of Trolltooth Pass The player begins this adventure with no idea who they are or where they are. The player is an unidentified beast and begins the adventure with no concept of language or reason. The player must discover what has happened to them and along the way a greater plot unfolds. The book begins with an extensive background section detailing the recent history of an area of Allansia known as Trolltooth Pass. An Evil Necromancer named Zharradan Marr has slowly been seizing power in the region by building up wealth and a small army. He is particularly feared as a practitioner of marrangha, a type of black magic that involves the transformation of limbs and organs from one creature to another. Marr learnt this from his mentors in the village of Dree, an evil settlement of witches. Over the years Marr has built up a dedicated ring of followers: Vallaska Roue, a Human; Hannicus, a wizard of Neutral alignment; Thugruff, a Half-Troll; and Darramouss, an undead Half-Elf. Hannicus gives Marr much information about the area, including the legend of Stittle Woad - an Elven village in the Forest of Spiders that supposedly hold three "Vapours" - benevolent spirits which bestow the gifts of reason, languages and Elven magic. Marr, interested in the secrets of Elven magic, manages to steal the Vapours - however, he finds that he cannot understand their secrets without finding the village of Stittle Woad. This presents a problem, as the village is hidden high in the forest's treetops by Elven magic. A solution presents itself in the form of the Galleykeep, a flying ship that arrives from the east. Marr uses his troops to capture the flying ship and makes it not only his new headquarters, but a tool to discover the location of Stittle Woad from above. Little of the background information is relevant to the player at the beginning of the book, for they wake up in a dark corridor to find that they have no memory of who they are. Not only that, but the player is not even human - they take the role of a large, powerful and unintelligent beast. This results in some difficulty as the player makes his way through the first sections of the book, which are set in Marr's underground dungeons. Because the creature cannot make its own decisions, it is governed by instinct, and die rolls are used to determine decisions rather than the player's own choice. This changes once the player finds the Vapour of Reason, which allows him to make his own choices. How to Fight Creatures of Trolltooth Pass The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules *This book contains slightly different rules than most Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. A hit to the player in combat does 1 stamina point less damage than usual due to the player's tough hide and rolling a double when determining the player's attack strength will instantly kill an enemy. Testing Your Luck in battle when wounded means that a lucky roll results in no damage. Equipment List The player also begins with no Provisions, money, or equipment. Cover and Illustrations '''Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Ian Miller. When the book was republished by Wizard a new cover was designed and illustrated by Les Edwards. This was the last book to feature the Adventure Gamebooks banner. #Price of 1st Impression #In Warlock Issue 13 there is an image of a cover of Creature of Havoc that was never released. The inside front cover of this issue of Warlock was an advert for the gamebook. It showed the cover of Creature of Havoc with a different colour used for the font of the title of the adventure and instead of the credit "Steve Jackson's" it reads "By Steve Jackson". Therefore the advert has a cover that was never released. #Price of 3rd Impression #Price of 8th Impression #Price of 8th Impression (Barcode Indicator suggests actually "9th" Impression). Note that the colour map is not included in this edition. Illustrations The interior illustrations were by Alan Langford. There were 33 full page illustrations and 9 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text. The paragraphs with a full page illustration were: 1, 12, 24, 40, 63, 88, 100, 111, 123, 134, 147, 170, 182, 194, 217, 229, 241, 263, 274, 287, 299, 312, 323, 334, 356, 366, 377, 390, 400, 411, 423, 435 and 447. The colour map on the inside front cover was by Dave Andrews. It was not reproduced for the Wizard edition. Intertextual References The backstory of Zharradan Marr was elaborated on in later books. It was established that Marr was once one of three pupils of an Evil wizard called Volgera Darkstorm (the other two being Balthus Dire from the book The Citadel of Chaos and Oldoran Zagor from the book The Warlock of Firetop Mountain). After Darkstorm grew wary of their increasing powers, his three pupils tired of learning and killed their teacher by a carefully disguised "Rain of Knives" spell.Creature of Havoc - "Tales of Trolltooth Pass" Other Media Main Characters YOU: Hero of Creature of Havoc *Daga Weaseltongue - Elf *Darramouss - an undead Half-Elf *Grog - Half-Orc *Hannicus - Wizard *Quimmel Bone *Rosina of Dree *Thugruff - Half-Troll *Vallaska Roue - Human *Women of Dree *Zharradan Marr Locations *Bilgewater *Bu Fon Fen *Coven *Deedlewater *Dree *Forest of Spiders *Knotoak Wood *Rainbow Ponds *Spider River *Stittle Woad *Trolltooth Pass *Windward Plain *Xeno Wood Encounters *Black Elf *Blood Orcs *Carrion Bugs *Chaos Warriors *Clawbeast *Devourer *Elf *Flesh-Feeders *Giant Hornet *Gluevines *Goblins *Half-Orc *Hobbits *Humans - Armoured Knight/Brigand/"Eleven"/Fighter in Leather Armour/Guard/Thief/Villager/Warriors/Woodcutter *Manic Beast *Master of Hellfire *Ophidiotaur *Quimmel Bone *Rhino-Man *Rosina of Dree *Stallion *Strongarm *Thugruff *Toadman *Zombies Further Notes *This is, to date, the last Fighting Fantasy gamebook written by Steve Jackson. *Marrangha, the magic that Marr practices, is an almost anagram of the word "anagram" (with the addition of an "h" and an extra "r" to make the word less obviously an anagram and more fantasy-like). *The "Adventure Sheet" is presented at the start of the introductory material rather than between the game instructions and background as is the norm for the range. This would repeated in Black Vein Prophecy. Errors There are several errors: *When you face Thugruff if you bring his stamina to four or less he blows a whistle and you're dead (305). If the player rolls a double during any Attack Round it is an Instant Death blow. How can Thugruff blow a whistle if he is dead? Similar battles "not to the death" include that with the Black Elf, and the human "Eleven" . *"jth jmfe" should be "jth imfe" in (7). *(213) where a secret passage trigger phrase is needed to allow completion of the adventure, does not begin the entry as it was supposed to, leaving a player to discover the correct exit through the trial and error method of testing every paragraph entry. It says "You reach a dead end." when it should read "You find yourself ..." allowing the player to turn to (233). This was corrected for the Wizard Books edition. *A slight continuity error: the correct path involves being transported by the Women of Dree to the banks of the stinking Bilgewater river, whose waters are described as "cool" and "splashing your face" (141). But in the next paragraph you turn to (423), in common with several unsuccessful paths, the river is described as "foul" and "pungent", following on from earlier references on the unsuccessful paths! *(336) You search for a Galleykeep hunting trap, so you Test your Luck. If you are Lucky (341), you get caught in a trap and are hauled on board, fight your captors and progress. If you are Unlucky, you also get caught in a trap but then get captured and eaten. It is likely implied that you get caught unawares and struggle to free yourself, and are thus too tired to resist capture. In (341), you see the trap, wait and trigger it just before the Galleykeep arrives. Compare with (10) and (175), which explicitly say you tire yourself out trying to free yourself from the same sort of trap. *In the Wizard version the "How to Fight the Creatures of Trolltooth Pass" is in error, which means that the reduced damage in combat noted above in Unique Rules is not made clear. Dedication Puffin Edition To Rob and Anne Wizard Edition To Ken, Lilian and Vicki See Also *''Fighting Fantasy'' Reviews *[http://user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/docs/ff24.txt Creature of Havoc at FF Reviews Archive] External Links *Character Sheet *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11 Fighting Fantasy at Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?name=Fighting+Fantasy+Reissues Fighting Fantasy (Wizard Series) at Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=61 Creature of Havoc at Gamebooks.org] *[http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb24.htm Creature of Havoc at the Internet Archive record of the old Fightingfantasy.com] *[http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/ff4.htm Creature of Havoc at the official Fightingfantasygamebooks.com] *[http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/wizard/wbook.cfm?isbn=1-84046-391-0 Creature of Havoc at Wizard Books] References Category:1986 books Category:FF24 Entries Category:Fighting Fantasy Original Series Category:Fighting Fantasy Wizard Series